As a wise woman once said, “Oh! What a world! What a world!” (Points for naming the source of the quote and the speaker.) If I’d known the country was such a great resource for sf/fantasy writers, I would have paid more attention when I had — I mean when I was privileged to — spend time there as a child.

In the back, Charlie planted castor beans around the perimeter of the garden because a friend said it would discourage moles. It doesn’t seem to have discouraged the mice who have taken over the now-disused mole tunnels in order to nom our potatoes. I can hear them giggling all the way up here.

In the front, this massive fungal growth has staked a claim at the foot of a tree. It’s the size of a dinner plate! (The fungus, not the tree.) The black specks are not pepper, they’re insects.

WRITING PROMPT: Go outside and take pictures of weird things in nature. If you take pictures of people, don’t tell them that. Word to the wise.

MA